Prophecy

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS WHEN STUDYING THE BOOK OF REVELATION

by Henry Jaegers
12/04/23
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UNRAVELING THE CONFUSION

OVER PROPHECY

By Henry Jaegers

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

WHEN STUDYING THE BOOK OF REVELATION

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lYyoFyAn9Mf3CaQKYdSRoIPD-ToL5HXl/view?usp=sharing

 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Revelation 22:16-21)

This is the third edition of my book on Revelation. That does not mean that I have changed my viewpoints on any of these teachings, but I have seen the need to change the format and add this particular section to the book. 

It is a sad thing when I find people who are afraid to read the book of Revelation. And I think the reason for this is that many attempts to comment on the book without considering the Scriptures that I have quoted above, cause many to go astray by adding features not taught anywhere else in scripture.. In my past 60 years, as a student of the Bible, I have read many books by others on Revelation and what I have found to be confusing is the many comments and theories that have been inserted into this book to make it easier for others to understand. The book of Revelation in itself is one of the easiest books in the Bible to understand because it is so clearly outlined and formatted in such a way as there should be no doubt as to its purpose.

At this point, I would like to give a warning against approaching the Scriptures using pee-conceived theories that you have learned from others about what the Bible is saying. When we approach the Scriptures with pre-conceived ideas, it hinders our ability to study the Scriptures objectively and independently. When we do this regularly, our ability to understand the Scriptures will be hindered . Let me give you an illustration of this.

While in Bible school, we studied a course on "Principles of Bible Interpretation". We used the book of a well-known author, connected with a well-known, popular seminary. One of the principles he taught us states, "when the plain sense of Scripture makes good sense, seek no other kind of sense". That is a very good and important principle to remember when studying the Scripture. Unfortunately, the author of this book taught in a school that violated this very principle when teaching the subject on “Biblical Prophecy”. Everything that this school taught was based on the theories of men at the very same time, with their theories, violated this simple principle of Bible Interpretation.

So, what can we learn from this? Men in their attempt to explain the word of God often conflict with one another, and placing your trust in their theories, often leads to confusion. The word of God itself, when read carefully through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, can help us to understand difficult passages without having to consult the opinions of fallible men.

Sometimes we must read a whole chapter to understand a particular difficult verse. We must always keep the scripture in its setting(or context) to fully understand what God means by what He says. I have discovered, that by carefully analyzing all the Scripture surrounding these verses, there is no conflict at all. The conflict comes when men try to interpret Scripture by the use of reasoning. The work of the Holy Spirit surpasses all human understanding and sometimes patience is necessary to understand some difficult portions of Scripture. Often, the difficulty in understanding comes through our lack of knowledge of the Scriptures as a whole. Or we may have to pass through a certain experience in our life to understand what these passages mean. But eventually, as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit will teach us and bring all things to our remembrance. I found this to be true in my life.

In teaching the word of God and when I come to difficult portions, I always try to preface it with the statement "according to my understanding". This avoids dogmatism and allows me to be flexible and receptive to new information that may come my way, that I do not presently possess. What I am saying is, keep to the Scriptures and let the Bible interpret itself. When we do this, there is usually no conflict of human opinion. Meditating on this scripture is a method that God has given to us to use when studying His word. Unfortunately, we find ourselves very often dependent on what others have to say. That is not wrong, as Godly men are used as our teachers, but we must have a proper biblical foundation to discern if they are declaring truth or stating their opinions. Enough said, on this matter.

When attempting to teach the book of Revelation, we must recognize that we are entering into "holy ground", and we must be careful to teach this book in the way God intended it to be received. Revelation chapter 1 serves as an introduction to this book and its contents must be clearly understood because, after chapter 1, that is where many interpreters go astray.

Consider this outline of chapter 1:

I. The Revelation Explained: versus 1-7

II. John's testimony of what he saw: verses 9-18

III. God's instruction to John: verses 19, 20.

As you can see, there is nothing difficult about the contents of chapter 1. It is easy to outline and set in such a way as to make it easy for us to understand.

At this point, I refer you to two Scriptures that set forth the direction of the book of Revelation.

“Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

19. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;

Most commentators agree that verse19 serves as an outline to the book of Revelation. I believe that this is true but we must examine carefully what this verse is telling us.

We notice first of all, that God addresses seven churches, in particular, naming each one. These seven churches are churches that are a representation of the bride of Christ who in this present state is not ready for the arrival of the bridegroom. And throughout the book of Revelation, we must remember that God has the church in mind throughout the whole of the book.

 It is my understanding that before the church can be ready for the coming of the bridegroom, she must pass through a purification that prepares her for his coming as in Revelation chapter 19:7, which says, “ Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

So, the book of Revelation in chapters 2-18 has the church in its focus and when the bridegroom comes in chapter 19, her purification process is complete and she is now ready for the marriage to take place. But that is not the end, because we have chapters 20 and 21 to consider in the preparation of the bride for his coming.

Now, in considering verse 19, there are three things of note that I believe are the proper way of understanding how this outline works.

Firsts: the things that thou hast seen. This refers to the vision and instructions in chapter 1.

Second: the things that are". This refers to the present condition of the church as found in chapters 2 and 3.

Third: the things that shall be hereafter referred to the church in preparation for the coming of the Bridegroom.

To me, this is the simplest explanation to help us to understand the rest of the book of Revelation.

As we progress in the study of Revelation, we will find that it is not difficult to understand, but it is the various attempts by men to try to interpret symbolism's that cause problems and make the book of Revelation impossible to understand because they distract from the message itself.

A simple principle in studying Revelation is to not try to interpret certain symbols which the writer does not himself try to interpret. As much as possible, try to determine what is figurative and what is literal. The safe side is to keep it as literal as long as it does not detract from the meaning of the text. Remember this rule: When studying all scripture: “When the plain sense of scripture makes good sense, seek no other kind of sense.” (And this applies to the study of prophecy as well.)

I believe the book of Revelation has become one of the most abused books of the Bible because of the many insertions by men in their attempt to make the book easier to read. What they do by this is detract from the simplicity of the text and leave us confused rather than edified. We must take Revelation 22:16-21 as a serious matter and we must not venture into this holy book in teaching it to others without much prayer and carefulness in doing so.

God does not intend for this book to be difficult to understand, because, in Revelation 1:3, we are given the promise: Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

What further incentive do we need with these promises given to us by God?